The promoter who brought country duo Big & Rich to Allentown’s Coca-Cola Park a month ago says the show not only was profitable, but was successful enough to prompt it to plan other area shows – perhaps as many as six at the stadium next year.

The stage in Coca-Cola Park for Big & Rich

And New Castle Entertainment spokesman Tim Crockett said the promoter also is looking at shows for other Lehigh Valley venues, including a show – “not a musical act,” Crockett said – that could be announced this week.

The Big & Rich show sold 5,920 tickets on Aug. 19 in just the second concert ever at Coca-Cola Park and the first since Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp sold out the 11,000-capacity park in July 2009.

“It went really well,” Crockett said. “I think people genuinely had a great time. I loved it and I’m glad everybody liked it.”

Crockett said the show was profitable, even after Newcastle bought some of the equipment for the concert. That spending will make future shows less expensive, he said. He said the promoters also had ancillary deals with Coca-Cola Park, which he declined to detail, that generated revenue.

“Financially we did fine,” Crockett said.

When the Big & Rich show was announced in June, New Castle and park officials said another concert was expected to be announced in a month.

It’s now three months later, and Crockett said New Castle -- based in Delaware and California -- still is considering another concert at the park this year. But with the Lehigh Valley IronPigs baseball team making the playoffs, finding an open date might be difficult.

“We’re debating, but we’re up against weather and up against time for this year,” Crockett said. “Do we try to push something in?”

More likely is four to six shows there next year, he said.

“That’s kind of the plan,” he said.

IronPigs General Manager Kurt Landes said in June that he hoped to have several concerts a year at the park.

"We were very happy with the concert and we are looking forward to working with Tim to bring in more concerts in the future," Landes said today in an e-mail from Columbus, Ohio, where the IronPigs were playing in the league championship.

"I know we'll be sitting down to discuss future concerts together after our season concludes. We have received fantastic feedback from our fans about how great the ballpark is for outdoor concerts."

Crockett said he’s had a “walk through” and meetings with Lehigh University's Stabler Arena and other outdoor venues in the Valley for other concerts next year.

“We’re trying to create things that have never been done,” Crockett said. He said he hopes to also bring acts that haven’t performed in the area.

He said the act that may be announced soon is “not a musical act, but it’s very entertaining.” It will be an indoor event in late November, he said.

The other is event would be a band, Crockett said.

New Castle’s goal would be to make any shows it does affordable, with tickets in the $35 to $45 range.

“I know the biggest positive we heard [about Big & Rich) was the pricing was in line,” Crockett said.

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JOHN J. MOSER has been around long enough to have seen the original Ramones in a small club in New Jersey, U2 from the fourth row of a theater and Bob Dylan's born-again tours. But he also has the number for All-American Rejects' Nick Wheeler on his cell phone, wrote the first story ever done on Jack's Mannequin and hung out in Wiz Khalifa's hotel room.

OTHER CONTRIBUTORS

JODI DUCKETT: As The Morning Call's assistant features editor responsible for entertainment, she spends a lot of time surveying the music landscape and sizing up the Valley's festivals and club scene. She's no expert, but enjoys it all — especially artists who resonated in her younger years, such as Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Tracy Chapman, Santana and Joni Mitchell.

KATHY LAUER-WILLIAMS enjoys all types of music, from roots rock and folk to classical and opera. Music has been a constant backdrop to her life since she first sat on the steps listening to her mother’s Broadway LPs when she was 2. Since becoming a mother herself, she has become well-versed on the growing genre of kindie rock and, with her son in tow, can boast she has seen a majority of the current kid’s performers from Dan Zanes to They Might Be Giants.

STEPHANIE SIGAFOOS: A Jersey native raised in Northeast PA, she was reared in a house littered with 8-tracks, 45s and cassette tapes of The Beatles, Elvis, Meatloaf and Billy Joel. She also grew up on the sounds of Reba McEntire, Garth Brooks and Tim McGraw and can be found traversing the countryside in search of the sounds of a steel guitar. A fan of today's 'new country,' she digs mainstream/country-pop crossovers like Lady Antebellum and Sugarland and other artists that illustrate the genre's diversity.